


Barbed

by evilwriter37



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [13]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Blood, F/M, Field Surgery, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Whump, hiccup!whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:34:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29119032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Hiccup is struck with a spear in battle. Mala is the first one to get to him and has to perform field surgery to get the spearhead out.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134545
Comments: 11
Kudos: 39





	Barbed

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: field surgery

The battle seemed to be going well. That is, until Hiccup took a spear to his side. The Dragon Riders were fighting Dragon Hunters alongside the Defenders of the Wing, and they were falling back. One had desperately thrown a spear though, and it had gone into Hiccup’s left side. He fell to his knees with a gasp and a scream. He clutched at the wound, doubling over. Oh, it hurt. It hurt so bad. It felt like someone had drilled a hole through his insides and poured liquid fire inside.

Toothless blasted the man that had thrown the spear, and there was a series of crunches as he hit the side of the deck hard. He fell, dead. 

“Hiccup Haddock!” came a shout from another ship. He looked through half-lidded eyes to see Mala rushing towards him. She knocked over a broken piece of wood to use as a gangplank, and boarded the ship he and Toothless were on. Hiccup collapsed, unable to hold himself up anymore. The spear rattled against the wood of the deck, jostling Hiccup’s insides. 

“Hiccup…” Mala’s hands were on him, very gently rolling him onto his back. 

“What is it, my queen?” Throk’s voice joined them. Hiccup didn’t have it in him to open his eyes at the moment. He heard a gasp as Throk took in the sight of Hiccup’s injury. 

“The spear haft has to be cut,” Mala said. 

“No, don’t,” Hiccup moaned. He knew she was right, but that it would hurt. He didn’t want to add to his agony. 

“Throk.” Mala said, and Throk knew what to do. Hiccup couldn’t do anything to stop them, couldn’t move away. He screamed as Throk’s axe cut through the haft of the spear. The movement jolted the spearhead inside of him, sloshing around that liquid fire. Throk grunted as he threw aside the haft. 

“What happened?!” Astrid’s call came. Hiccup opened his eyes to see her landing on the ship with Stormfly. She dismounted and rushed over. She gasped when she got a closer look at Hiccup. 

“I don’t think it hit any of his internal organs,” Mala said. “But it needs to come out. A flight with that in him could kill him.”

“I’ll go get Fishlegs.” The battle was still raging on.

“No,” Mala said. “I can do this. I’ve been trained.”

“I’ll stay,” Astrid told them, mostly directing her words at Hiccup. She knelt by him on his uninjured side, took his hand. Hiccup gave it a weak squeeze. He was in too much pain to do much else. 

“Throk, cut off his armor and clothing,” Mala ordered. “Astrid or Hiccup, do any of you have a knife? Stitches, bandages?”

“Here.” Astrid unsheathed one of her daggers and handed it to Mala. “I have the rest in my saddlebag.”

“Alcohol would be good too.” 

“I’ve got that as well.”

Hiccup mourned the loss of Astrid’s hand as she went to get what Mala needed. He was scared. He’d never been wounded like this before, and he’d most certainly never needed surgery directly on the field of battle. 

Hiccup didn’t move as Throk cut off his armor and tunic. Cold air buffeting his skin raised the hair along his arms, made him shiver, and that just made everything hurt more. He groaned. 

Astrid returned with the supplies, once again took Hiccup’s hand once they were passed off to Mala and Throk. 

“Throk, hold him down. I need to get a closer look at this.” 

_ Fuck _ . 

Throk moved Hiccup’s arm aside, then held him down by the shoulders. Mala leaned in to look at his wound, peering closely. She slid the knife into place beside the spear, not slicing anything new, but stretching already sliced skin. Hiccup shouted, tried to twist away, but Throk held him still. 

“Fuck,” Mala muttered, and that was the first time Hiccup had ever heard her curse. In this situation? That was  _ bad _ . 

“What is it?” Astrid hurriedly asked. 

“The spear’s barbed,” Mala answered. 

That set off an alarm in Hiccup’s brain. Even with how out of it he was, he knew that that was  _ bad _ . 

“There are two ways to remove a barbed spear,” Mala began. “Push it out the other side, or cut it out.” 

Hiccup groaned in distress. Either of those options sounded horrible. He didn’t know which one he preferred. Both would be horribly painful. 

“This one, we have to cut out,” Mala said. “It would hit internal organs if we pushed it out.” 

“No, no, just leave it,” Hiccup whimpered. 

“Hiccup, we can’t,” Astrid said. “We have to do this, okay?”

Hiccup moaned, turned his head to look at Astrid. “Y-you’ll be with me the whole time, right?”

Astrid smoothed some hair away from his forehead, kissed him there. “Yes, Hiccup, I will.” 

“Throk, get ready,” Mala said. She was being very cold and technical about this whole thing. “He’ll fight.” 

Throk’s hold on Hiccup tightened, and Hiccup squeezed Astrid’s hand hard. The knife bit into him. Hiccup screamed. He fought against Throk’s hands, and the one Mala had placed on him. He kicked, but there was no one within the vicinity of his legs. He couldn’t use his arms very much either. His next resort was biting, but these people were trying to help him. He couldn’t  _ bite them _ . 

The cutting was absolutely horrible. Mala did it slowly, precisely, slicing around the barbed spearhead. Hiccup shrieked and screamed and struggled. His body was convulsing with anguish. Astrid held his hand with two of her own. 

After what felt like an eternity of agony, Mala said: “I’m going to pull it out now.”

She did so slowly, so as not to move the barbs and injure him further. Hiccup hated it. He hated it so much. 

The spearhead came free with a gush of blood. Hiccup was gasping for breath. He stared up at the sky, then down at his wound. His fingers shook. He couldn’t see much but red, but he could  _ feel  _ that there was a gaping hole inside his body.

Mala didn’t warn him for what she was doing next, but Hiccup saw her grab the bottle of alcohol. He tensed, a loud yell leaving him as she poured the alcohol over the wound.

“Stop, stop!” Hiccup shouted, sobbed. “Please, stop!”

“Hiccup, we’re helping you,” Astrid said. “You’ll be okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Hiccup fell into a sobbing mess. He was surprised he hadn’t died from shock. He could feel his legs beginning to go cold.

As if Mala somehow knew this, she ordered Toothless to lay down under Hiccup’s legs so that they were elevated. She had probably guessed he was going to go into shock anyway. 

The knife and the alcohol cast aside, Mala began to stitch him up. Again, her movements were slow and precise. His blood was all over her fingers. Toothless rumbled in concern, lowered his ears. Naturally, Hiccup could guess that he didn’t like the sound of him screaming and crying like this. 

Hiccup lost the strength to scream as Mala stitched up the wound. Instead, he just turned his head to the side, closed his eyes, and moaned and cried. Astrid was running fingers comfortingly through his hair. Her touch was a safe beacon in a sea of crushing agony.

Then it was done, and he was being lifted up and bandaged. They quickly found furs aboard the ship to wrap him in. Hiccup sat there, his side pulsing, feeling numb everywhere else. 

He didn’t realize that the battle had died down until his friends were landing and rushing over to him, asking in a sea of voices what had happened. Mala and Astrid explained. Hiccup didn’t have it in him to talk. Throk kept a warm, comforting hand on his shoulder. 

“We’ll take him back to our healing center,” Mala said. “The rest of you are free to accompany us.” 

Hiccup was okay with that. He’d heard wonderful things about the healing of the Defenders of the Wing. He looked forward to it after this harrowing experience. 

“Whoa,” Ruffnut said, picking up the bloody spearhead. “This was inside Hiccup? Can I keep it?”

Astrid slapped the offending weapon out of her hand. “No, you can’t keep it!” 

Tuffnut slowly reached out a hand to pick it up. Hiccup weakly kicked him in the ankle. Tuffnut let his hand drop. He didn’t want anyone to keep that thing. It would just remind him of the horrors he’d been through. 

“Follow our ship back,” Mala told Astrid, who was helping Hiccup get onto Toothless. She then climbed on behind him. She’d be doing the flying. Hiccup just slouched over in the saddle, head resting between Toothless’ ears. He blissfully lost consciousness as they took to the air. 


End file.
